In a cellular wireless telecommunications system, radio coverage is provided by areas known as cells. Abase station is located in each cell to provide the radio coverage area. Traditional base stations provide coverage in relatively large geographical areas and these cells are often referred to as macro cells. It is possible to provide smaller sized cells, often within a macro cell. Such smaller sized cells are sometimes referred to as micro cells, pico cells or femto cells. Such small cells are typically established by providing a small cell base station that provides radio coverage having a relatively limited range within the radio coverage area of a macro cell. The transmission power of the small cell base station is relatively low and, hence, each small cell provides a smaller coverage area compared to that of a macro cell and covers, for example, an office or a home. A group of such small cell base stations may together provide a wireless small cell network.
Such small cells are typically provided where the communications coverage provided by the macro cell is poor or where a user wishes to use an alternative communications link provided locally, by the small cell base station, to communicate with the core network. Such a situation might arise where, for example, a user has a pre-existing communications link and the user wishes to utilise that link in preference to that provided by a macro cell network provider to communicate with the core network. The group of small cell base stations providing the wireless small cell network can together provide extended local coverage to user equipment throughout, for example, a home or an office building by using multiple small cell base stations distributed throughout those buildings which enables each of those base stations to transmit at a lower power than would otherwise be necessary if coverage was to be provided by a single small cell base station.
However, the proliferation of the deployment of base stations makes the control of base stations difficult to achieve.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved technique for controlling base stations.